Terryville fire displaces two residents

Published 7:48 am, Tuesday, July 8, 2014

The second- and third-floor apartments sustained the most damage at 3 North Main St., Terryville. The fire is believed to have started in the third-floor bedroom.

The second- and third-floor apartments sustained the most damage at 3 North Main St., Terryville. The fire is believed to have started in the third-floor bedroom.

Photo: Jenny Golfin — The Register Citizen

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A view of the inside damage to 3 North Main St. in Terryville after a large fire broke out at the home Tuesday.

A view of the inside damage to 3 North Main St. in Terryville after a large fire broke out at the home Tuesday.

Photo: Contributed Photo — Eric Chasse

Terryville fire displaces two residents

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TERRYVILLE >> Two men were displaced from their homes after a fire tore through a house in the Terryville section of Plymouth early Tuesday morning.

The fire broke out at about 7:30 a.m. Tuesday, in the bedroom of a vacant third floor apartment at 3 North Main St., according to Eric Chasse, who identified himself the former owner of the three-story, multi-family house. A busy section of Main Street, also known as Route 6, was closed for a few hours while crews worked the fire and was reopened about two hours later.

Chasse said the house went into foreclosure three years ago, but for reasons unknown to him the bank has not taken the property.

No one was injured when the fire broke out, according to Chasse, who was frustrated about the fact that the house was not insured. He said his insurance company would not accept him paying directly to maintain coverage after the foreclosure process started. Typically, homeowner’s insurance is paid by the mortgage company from the escrow. He advised the two men living there to get renter’s insurance.

“There’s only two gentlemen still living here. There’s four apartments altogether,” said Chasse.

Frank Capurso was living on the second floor by himself, but wasn’t home when the fire started in the bedroom above his apartment.

Capurso said he didn’t have insurance wouldn’t be able to replace the things of real value.

“I lost all the pictures of my mom and dad, my kids,” Capurso said. “People don’t realize how devastating it is to lose everything — pictures, mementos. At least when you have a tornado you have wreckage to sift through and might find something. I’ve got nothing but charred remains.”

Capurso said that for the moment he will stay with his girlfriend.

“My whole world is going to plan B,” Capurso said. “I’m lucky in one sense, that I have a great girlfriend that I can stay with.”

Capurso was carefully going through the few boxes the fire marshal brought out from his apartment — important documents like the title for his vehicle. He hoped to get back into the apartment to see what could be salvaged.

A first-floor resident, who declined to give his name, was asleep when the fire broke out. He said he was woken up by the police department knocking on his door yelling about a fire.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do,” the man said. “My kids are all grown and live all over Connecticut. The town said they’d put me up in a hotel.”

The first-floor apartment sustained mostly water damage.

“Right now my priority is getting all of this stuff out before the roof comes down,” the man said.